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Selene
Selene is a Vampire Death Dealer who appears in Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, and the upcoming Underworld: New Dawn. She is portrayed by actress Kate Beckinsale and by her daughter Lily Sheen as a child. Background Selene was born to a Hungarian family sometime in the year 1383. Her father was a well-known architect who helped design a fortress for a Vampire general, Viktor. The fortress was a dungeon intended for the imprisonment of the Werewolf William Corvinus, who was condemned for his bloody and destructive behaviour. As a child, Selene roamed the halls of the dungeon and drew on its walls. To keep the location of William's prison secret, Viktor killed Selene's entire family. However, he could not kill Selene, because she reminded him of his daughter Sonja. Instead, Viktor made her a Vampire. He lied to her, telling her a pack of Lycans had killed her family. In retaliation, Selene became a Death Dealer, and began to hunt and kill Lycans, intending to drive them into extinction. Kraven, the Coven’s regent, was obsessed with her, although she did not return the feeling. He pursued her for years, but she constantly rejected him, bruising his massive but fragile ego. Under the orders of Viktor, Selene exiled Andreas Tanis, the Coven historian. Selene believed that Tanis was spreading lies, as Viktor claimed, though this was another false truth. For 600 years, Selene remained loyal to Viktor, never believing anything ill of him. Though Selene had slept with men during that time, she never allowed any of them to get too close to her. Underworld At the start of Underworld, Selene is seen sitting atop a building, lamenting the extinction of the Lycan species. She thinks to herself that her life will have no meaning once the species is completely wiped out, as she has dedicated herself to the extermination of Lycans since she first became a Vampire. Selene follows fellow Death Dealers Nathaniel and Rigel into a subway station as they hunt two Lycans, Raze and Trix. There, Selene sees a man she immediately notes as being handsome, though she declines to speak to him. Before the Vampires can make a move on the Lycans, Raze senses their presence and starts shooting at Selene and Rigel. Rigel is killed instantly, but Selene is able to avoid the gunfire long enough to shoot Trix after he leans out to shoot an innocent woman. Selene notices that the man she had seen previously rushes to aid the woman, and she admires his bravery. Selene chases Trix as he flees into deeper parts of the subway. Though Trix is able to ambush her, she quickly kills him and discovers the ultraviolet ammunition he was using. While in the tunnels beneath the subway, Selene discovers what she thinks may be a Lycan lair. She returns to Ordoghaz with news of the lair, but is promptly ignored by Kraven. Angered, Selene heads to the Elders Chamber, where she stares at Viktor's resting place to ease her mind. She confides to Erika, a curious servant sent by Kraven to watch after Selene, that she dislikes Kraven and that Viktor would have believed her. Erika tries to persuade Selene to get ready for the arrival of Amelia's envoy, but Selene ignores her and begins sifting through pictures from the night's hunt. She discovers that the Lycans were tracking the man she had noticed in the subway, though she doesn't understand why. Believing she may be able to find proof of the Lycan den, she finds the human's name and address, then sets out to interrogate him. In the process, she ignores Kraven's orders to be present when Amelia's envoy arrives, angering him. Selene tracks down the human she believes the Lycans have an interest in: Michael Corvin. She kicks in his door and attacks him when he enters the apartment, demanding to know why the Lycans are searching for him. Before she can get her answers, Lycans attack the building and Michael runs off. Selene shoots her way to the bottom floor, where she rescues Michael from an unknown Lycan. Unbeknowst to Selene, the Lycan bites Michael, infecting him with the Lycanthropy virus. The Lycan attacks Selene as she drives off, stabbing her in the shoulder and severing an artery. Selene refuses to listen to Michael when he tries to point out her large amount of blood loss, causing her to pass out and drive her car off a pier. Michael saves Selene and performs CPR on her, clearing the water from her lungs. He then bandages her wound and passes out beside her. When Selene awakens, she finds her wound has healed. She lays under the pier until night, then drives the unconcious Michael to Ordoghaz. There, Selene is berated by an enraged Kraven for staying out all day and for bringing Michael into the mansion. As Kraven yells at her, he mentions a Lycan named Lucian in the present tense, making Selene suspicious. She begins to suspect that Kraven never really killed Lucian as he claimed to have done, and breaks into the Coven's archives to find proof of her theory. In one of the books, she sees a drawing of Lucian, which depicts him wearing the same necklace she saw the Lycan who attacked her the previous night wearing. Selene realizes that Lucian is alive and well, and that she saw him just the night before. Selene awakens Viktor, then flees the mansion with Michael, whom she learns has been bitten by Lucian. The two hide in a Vampire safe house, but Selene abandons him there once dawn approaches. Before she leaves, she kisses him, then handcuffs him to a chair. She gives him a gun with silver bullets to use in case he starts to turn. At the mansion, Viktor chastises Selene for awakening him two centuries ahead of schedule, and orders her to be judged by the council. Kraven leads Selene back to her room, where he locks her in. After closing the door, Kraven tells one of his men to keep a close eye on Selene, as she is his "future queen". Erika, who is desperately in love with Kraven, becomes angered by this. She uses the opportunity to shut down power to the mansion and to free Selene from her room. As soon as she is released, Selene goes to Michael, but she is followed by a group of Lycans. The Lycans attack the pair, and are able to kidnap Michael. Selene finds one of the Lycans, Singe, still alive. She tortures him into confessing why the Lycans want Michael, then takes him back to the mansion to tell this to Viktor, clearing her name in the process. Upon hearing the Lycan's story and learning Lucian is indeed still alive, Viktor apologizes to Selene for doubting her. Before he leaves the room, he tells her that she must kill Michael. Conflicted, Selene joins a group of Death Dealers led by Kahn in an assault on the Lycan den, but quickly splits from the group to find Michael. She releases Michael from his bonds, and learns from him the truth of how the war between the Vampires and Lycans really started. As the duo try to escape, they are confronted by Kraven. Enraged at the sight of Selene with Michael, Kraven shoots Michael with silver nitrate bullets. Kraven then tells Selene that her place is by his side and offers her his hand, but she again refuses, looking longingly down at Michael. Angered, Kraven tells Selene about how her family really died and how the war really started. Selene initially doesn't believe him, but she begins to understand he's telling the truth. On Lucian's advice, Selene bites Michael, infecting him with the Vampire virus. The combination of the two viruses makes Michael a Hybrid, a creature containing elements of both the Lycan and Vampire species. Selene confronts Viktor about her family and the death of his daughter after he throws Michael through a wall. Though he tries to explain his position, Selene clearly no longer trusts him. Viktor draws his sword and prepares to attack Michael, to which Selene cries out "No!". During Viktor's fight with Michael, Selene rushes to Michael's aid, killing Viktor's bodyguards in the process. Upon seeing Viktor strangling Michael to death, Selene grabs Viktor's sword and uses it to cut his head in half, saving Michael and avenging her family at the same time. She then drops the sword. Selene finds Sonja's pendant lying in the dirt and picks it up, recognizing that it is now a symbol of her love for Michael. Underworld: Evolution After Viktor’s death, Selene and Michael go on the run from both Lycans and Vampires. Selene initially attempts to return to Ordoghaz to plead with remaining Vampire Elder Marcus Corvinus for Michael's life, but her plan is foiled when she realizes Marcus has somehow become a Hybrid. At the same time, she hears gunshots and sees that Michael has caught the attention of human police officers, who are now shooting at him. Selene quickly incapacitates the officers and saves a bullet-riddled Michael by feeding him her blood. Immediately after, Selene is confronted by Marcus, who suspects that Selene may know something about his twin brother, William Corvinus. As Marcus attacks her, Michael intervenes, giving the pair time to escape. After narrowly escaping Marcus and the coming sunlight, Selene and Michael take refuge in a warehouse. In the warehouse Michael attempts to tend to Selene's burn wounds, only to discover they have already healed. While hiding in the warehouse, the two consumate their affections for each other. To find out why Marcus was after the pendant, Selene seeks out Andreas Tanis. Tanis initially tries to kill Selene and Michael upon seeing them, but fails. Instead, Selene attacks and kills Tanis's two lovers, then confronts Tanis himself. Tanis explains to her why Viktor killed her family and reveals that Marcus, not Viktor, is the original Vampire. He then sets up a meeting for her and Michael with Alexander Corvinus, Marcus’ father and the first true immortal. Selene becomes angry with Alexander for not removing the threats his sons posed long ago. Alexander then retorts by asking her if she would murder her own son. An interruption by Marcus in which Michael is seemingly killed results is Selene’s memories of the fortress being taken by Marcus through her blood. Selene is torn apart by Michael's death, and tries desperately to revive him with her blood while sobbing. Realizing that she cannot save him, Selene returns to the ship, intent on finding and killing Marcus. Alexander tells Selene that the only way to defeat Marcus and William would be to drink his blood, adding that she would become the “Future”. Selene gains greater strength and new powers from Alexander’s blood, which she drinks from his slit wrist. Selene and a squad of Alexander’s ‘Cleaners’ invade William’s dungeon, trying to stop Marcus from releasing his brother. They arrive too late, however, and Selene is forced to fight Marcus. Marcus is shocked to smell his father’s blood flowing through Selene’s veins. After locking Marcus in William’s dungeon, Selene discovers that William has infected all the Cleaners, who then become Lycans themselves. On the verge of being overwhelmed, she is saved by Michael, who has regenerated due to his Hybrid powers. Selene fights Marcus once more, and the Elder drives his wing talon through her chest. Empowered by Alexander’s blood, Selene tears away the talon and drives it into Marcus’ skull before throwing him into the helicopter blades, thus killing him. After Marcus and William are killed, Selene discovers that she is able to stand in the sunlight due to the pure Corvinus Strain from Alexander Corvinus. It phenomenally enhances her strength and healing to a level equivalent to that of a Vampire-dominate Hybrid. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans At the end of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Selene can be seen on a building, thinking back to the time when Kraven told her the truth about Viktor, her family, and Sonja. She then remembers herself saying 'Lies' in response. Underworld: Awakening Underworld: New Dawn will center around Selene. Blood Enemy In the non-canon novel ''Blood Enemy'', Selene is responsible for the death of renegade Lycan Leyba, tracking her down after Leyba's forces attack a Lycan weapons deal and are responsible for the deaths of both the Lycans and another member of Selene's team. During the confrontation with Leyba, Leyba briefly reflects that Selene's eyes are like 'hers' (Sonja's), but Selene never learns the meaning of this comment before she kills Leyba. Leyba's goals remain a mystery to Selene. Relationships After the slaughter of her human family, Selene looks to Viktor as a replacement parent, idealizing him and looking to him when she believes the coven is in trouble. Viktor claims at one point to love Selene "like a daughter," calling her "my child." Kraven claims that Viktor turned Selene into a Vampire to replace Sonja, his own executed daughter. Selene seems to have no other close relationships within the coven, being friendly but not overly-social with the other Death Dealers. She seems to have a bit of contempt for the civilian members of the coven, and in return, they do not seem to like her either. Kraven's desire for her seems to be as much out of power (she is, in a sense, a princess of the coven) as out of lust, but they spend much of the time fighting, and Selene only has disdain for him. There seems to be some social expectations of Selene within the coven because of her status as Viktor's favorite; for instance, she is expected to attend the party welcoming Amelia. Her relationship with Michael is rather more complicated. Her feelings toward him seem to evolve very quickly. In her first sighting of him during a subway shoot-out with the Lycans, she is impressed at his bravery in diving out to help a woman who has been injured in the crossfire, and later feels gratitude for him for saving her life after she passed out while driving and crashed into the river. She is also sympathetic when he tells her about his wife's death. When he is changing into a Lycan, she is hesitant to kill him, not only because of her attraction to him but because of how he has helped her and others. When he is dying of silver nitrate poisoning, she only bites him in order to save his life by making him a Hybrid. He later thanks her, much to both their embarrassment. It is presumed that they become lovers very quickly because neither of them thought they would survive Marcus hunting them. Despite her apparent detachment, Selene is highly distraught when she comes to believe Michael is dead, and becomes even more deadly and vengeful as a result. When she discovers that Michael is alive and that she can withstand sunlight without burning due to Corvinus' blood, she narrates that she looks to the future "with new hope." Powers & Abilities Selene is extremely proficient with many kinds of weapons, both medieval and modern, including the Walther P99 and a variety of automatic machine pistols. Selene frequently demonstrates inhuman abilities of strength, speed, self-healing, and endurance. *'Endurance': She is seen jumping from a ledge at least 100 feet (approx. 30 meters) and landing without injury. She can take a shotgun blast to the abdom without flinching. *'Strength': She grabed Michael by the throut and held him against a wall several feet off the ground, performs spectacular leaps, and strikes her enemies with tremendous force. She is able to kill younger vampires with just a few blows and manhandles four police officers with ease. *'Self-Healing': She can heal rapidly from any wound, including sunlight burns and a shotgun blast to the abdomin, within seconds. *'Speed': She moved from tree to tree in an instant. *'Increased Powers': After fortifying herself with some blood from Alexander Corvinus, she is able to lift people with one arm and go toe to toe with Marcus in his hybrid form. She has been slammed against stone walls, breaking stones, with seemingly no ill effects to herself. Her healing abiliies have been increased to higher levels. At the end of Underworld: Evolution, her eyes are shown to temporarily turn all white but for the pupils, and she is now able to walk in the sunlight, signaling she has become a different type of vampire. Trivia *The role of Selene was written for actress Kate Beckinsale right from the beginning. *The child version of Selene is played by Lily Sheen, the daughter of Kate Beckinsale, Selene's adult actress. Lily's natural father is Michael Sheen, the actor who plays Lucian, although he and Kate had an amicable split before the beginning of shooting the first Underworld film. Kate later married the director of the first two films, Len Wiseman. *Promotional materials for the first movie put Selene's age at 121 years, though that was later changed to 600 years for the sequel. *A pendant that had previously belonged to a Vampire princess named Sonja was used as a toy by Selene when she was a child, though it was given to Sonja almost two hundred years before Selene's birth. This may be a goof, or it may suggest that Viktor lent the pendant to Selene's father to use as a key before returning it to his daughter. Gallery File:seleneuwe.jpg|Selene in Underworld: Evolution File:seleneuwe2.jpg|Selene in her father's dungeon File:seleneuw3.jpg|Selene in the opening shot of Underworld idontknow.JPG|Young Selene with her father underworld.jpg|Selene with Michael File:Seleneposter.jpg|Official wallpaper featuring Selene File:Selenevsv.jpg|Selene just after killing Viktor Category:Awakening characters Category:Evolution characters Category:Underworld characters Category:Character Category:Vampire Category:Death Dealer Category:Hybrid Category:Blood Enemy Characters